Filmmaker Senedy Que recently attended the 33rd Hongkong International Film Festival and provided PEP (Philippine Entertainment Portal) with his account of the event dubbed as the "Asian Oscars." Direk Senedy is a scriptwriter who wrote and directed his first full-length film Dose for the 2008 Cinema One Originals digital film festival.
With over a thousand films featured
in its Gala, Asian digital competition, Masters & Auteurs, and World Cinema
film programmes, the 33rd Hongkong International Film Festival proved to be a
haven for film enthusiasts.
Attending a three-week festival like
the HKIFF (which ran from March 22 to April 13, 2009) can be overwhelming.
However, careful planning and a little patience can be rewarding for someone
who wants to make the best out of this well-attended annual event.
Arriving with the Philippine delegation,
this writer immediately browsed through the catalogue to make his screening
selections. Representing Philippine cinema were filmmakers Dante Mendoza, Adolf
Alix, Jr. and Francis Pasion—each of whom had projects at the highly
competitive Hongkong-Asian Film Financing Forum.
The delegation also included Digna
Santiago and Jackie Atienza of the Film Development Council
of the Philippines, Cultural Center of the Philippines
president and artistic director Nestor Jardin, Ignatius Canada's
Ferdinand Lapuz, Regal Films' Lily Monteverde and Roselle Monteverde-Teo, as well as Imee
Marcos of Creative Media and Film Society of the
Philippines (CREAM). Independent film producers
Arleen Cuevas, Margie Templo, and Atty. Joji Alonso, editor Manet Dayrit, and
Cinema One's Ronald Arguelles were also present during the event.
During his frenzied 8-day stay in Hong Kong, this writer also found time
to attend the 3rd Asian Film Awards wherein actress Gina Pareno emerged as Best
Supporting Actress (making her the first Filipino to win in this Asian
‘Oscars') for her flawless performance in Brillante Mendoza's Serbis. Hollywood director Oliver
Stone and actor William Hurt graced the event, as well as popular Asian stars,
most notably jury chairperson Michelle Yeoh.
A prominent presence at the film
market was the Philippine booth which proudly declares: "The Philippines make great films..."
One of the films highly recommended
by Toronto filmfest programmer Raymond Phatanavirangoon was the film Soundless
Wind Chimes, which was screened at the Hong Kong Convention and
Exhibition Center. The gay film, directed by Kit Hung, follows Ricky (Lu
Yulai) as he searches for the lost soul and the past of his deceased Swiss
lover, Pascal (Bernard Bulling). As its title suggests, Soundless Wind Chimes is quiet yet
moving, poetic yet never boring. It speaks about unexpressed feelings and
unknowable sorrows once a loved one is gone—unexpectedly.
Being a fan of Thai actor Ananda
Everingham (Shutter, Ploy), I sought
his latest starrer, Happy Birthday, which is about a man who
painstakingly takes care of his comatose girlfriend who figured in a car
accident right before his eyes during his birthday. On screen for almost
every scene in the film, Ananda effortlessly craves for your empathy—and you
give in quite easily, with tears swelling in your eyes.
From Spain comes Alfonso Albacete
and David Menkes' Sex, Party, Lies... I caught this film at a film
market screening since I was curious about its title and a caption that
promises a "young, very attractive cast." Indeed, it does not fail in
that department—casting Spain's hottest stars in a movie about broken dreams
and alienation in a world of sex, drugs, and alcohol. There's nudity,
alright, but there's substance to it, as well—not just the ‘ecstasy' type of
substance, although the illegal substance figures quite prominently in the film,
too.
Another popular movie in the HKIFF is
Permanent Residence, megged by a director who goes only by
the name of Scud. A young gay man's relentless pursuit of his straight
male friend provides an excuse to display the lead actors' naked bodies in
almost every other scene (which explains the crowded theatres at the film's
screenings). A visual feast in more ways than one, Permanent Residence was shot in Hong Kong, Japan, Thailand, and
Australia. This film tackles unrequited love and the search for the
meaning of life and death.
The sole Iranian film at the 2008
Cannes International Film Festival, Saman Salour's Lonely Tunes of Tehran
is a deceptively simple film about a day in the life of two low-life dreamers.
They talk more than they achieve. They walk, and walk some more, without
ever reaching their destination. Eavesdropping on their conversations, we see a
bit of ourselves in these two losers who are simply trying to survive the
economic realities around them.
With still so much left to see and
do, this writer is looking forward to the 2010 edition of the Hong Kong
International Film Festival!